Day 1B of the 2018 MSPT Iowa State Poker Championship at Meskwaki Casino drew 279 entries – a single flight venue record – which along with 1A’s 176 brought the total field up to 455 entries. That means the top 54 players will get paid a minimum of $1,979 with $94,568 going to the eventual winner.

After 16 levels of play just 38 remained with Matt Roling and his stack of 517,000 leading the way. That is well ahead of 1A chip leader Travis Sweet, who made it through with 382,500.

Last season, Roling finished runner-up to Jason Ramos in the #MSPT100 here at Meskwaki, good for $65,325. He’ll be looking for some redemption come tomorrow.

Others to bag big stacks were Seven Seidler (467,500), Ron Amos (320,000), Paul Cross (279,500), and Blaise Poupore (241,500).

Joining them at the end of the night were MSPT Season 8 Grand Falls champ Ahmed Taleb (174,500), Matt Alexander (126,000), Run It Up Reno champ Blake Cavanagh (123,500), MSPT Regional champ Joel Klipping (103,500), Ryan Phan (91,500), Jason Seitz (78,000), and Phil Mader (48,500).

Among those players to hit the rail on Saturday were World Series of Poker bracelet winner Chris Tryba, MSPT Season 7 Player of the Year Rich Alsup, reigning MSPT Meskwaki champ Nathan Trenkamp, PokerNews reporter Mo Nuwwarah, Paul “Big Daddy” Elfelt, and “Minnesota” Jon Hanner.

Likewise, former MSPT champs Blake Bohn, Ken Komberec, Jeremy Dresch, Dan “DQ” Hendrickson, Jason Seitz, Carl Carodenuto, Josh Reichard, Jon Kim, Moon Ahmed, and 2016 MSPT Iowa State Poker Champ John Sun all fell by the wayside.

Day 2 will get underway at 11 a.m. on Sunday and play down to a winner. Be sure to join us tomorrow for more updates straight from the tournament floor. Until then, good night from Meskwaki Casino in Tama, Iowa!